The events from two years ago are still fresh in Simon Robert’s mind as he and Alex Miller begin their sophomore year at the University of Michigan. Nightmares are a routine occurrence as Simon relives the crimes his father and brother committed. Now, with his father ill and asking to see him, Simon must decide if he should see the man who tried to send him away to be fixed. And then there's Zach. Simon's conflicted about making peace with his older brother who tormented him as they grew up and caused him to be outed to his parents, friends and teammates.

Alex wants Simon to find closure, but Alex is furious at the thought of forgiving Zack. With no clear direction, Simon finds guidance from an unexpected, but very welcome, source.

At the same time, the University’s student body is faced with an anti-gay attacker among them. When he witnesses an attack first hand, memories threaten to overwhelm Simon. At the same time, he’s also emboldened to take action, which might turn him into a target.

Despite the distractions, Simon works towards his future as he begins working with teens at the local LGBT community center. He has the opportunity to use his story as a teaching tool to help others come out. While he’s never enjoyed telling his story, he looks for the courage to speak his truth to an audience.

Luckily, not everything is chaos. Simon and Alex mark their anniversary in epic fashion, continue to play hockey and hang out with good friends. But with many demands on them, can Simon and Alex set up the rebound necessary to create the scoring opportunity for their future?

EXCERPT:Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

"You're lightning fast this morning," I said to Alex when I got back to my locker. On days we had early practice, we usually walked out together. But today he was already dressed while I was still toweling off.

"Crazy day. Got two tests, meeting up with the new study group and gotta make time to work on the lab that's due at the end of the week."

"Don't your profs know it's our anniversary and you should get a break from all this?"

"If only."

We planned our celebration for Sunday since we we’d be very busy this week. Sunday was gonna kick ass since we’d spend it at the Penguins/Red Wings game in Detroit.

He slung his backpack over his shoulder and he was gone. I smiled. Yes, these were busy times, but man did I always feel tremendously loved. We had a great thing. Going to the game Sunday would be a blast. We'd warmed up to the Red Wings since coming to Michigan. During the season, we’d catch a few Wings games, and always when the Penguins were in town. It was perfect that we’d celebrate our anniversary on a game day.

As I pulled my sweatshirt on, Danny came up to me.

"Happy anniversary, man." He clapped me on the back.

“Thanks." Didn't expect to hear that. I knew people were aware of it. Sure, I’d mentioned it just a moment ago. We’d even updated our online statuses this morning. But it wasn't something you expected to hear tossed off like happy birthday.

"Great practice today. I loved the cycling we had going, it wasn’t so much like you were a forward and I was a D but more like we were in whatever position made the most sense in the moment.”

“Yeah, it was good. I’d never seen a cycling drill quite like that before.”

“It was great. Glad I was back with you guys for that one,” Trent said, walking up to us. “The five of us are really finding a groove. It’s great we haven’t hit a plateau.”

"Hopefully we don’t,” I said. “Alex and I still find nuances to our game even though we’ve paired for years now. Ideally the five of us will improve together all year."

"I didn't feel that with the partner I had last year," Danny said as he rustled around in his backpack. “He kinda slacked off midway through the season.”

The guy he was talking about got cut at the end of the season.

“I like being back with you guys,” Trent said. “It’s comfortable, but challenging too.”

"You'll find Alex and I always pushing each other to get better, so we’ll keep up the challenge.”

“And now that I’ve got Jose with me,” Danny said, “we should be a solid unit. Ah, here it is!” He exclaimed as he handed me a small light purple envelope with a "2" printed on it in silver ink. It was only a number, but I recognized Alex's handwriting immediately.

"What's this?"

“He said you’d ask that,” Danny said. “I’m supposed to tell you to just give it time."

“Uhmm, okay.” I took the envelope and ran my fingers over the two. "Thanks."

They were quite a pair. Danny, the tallest player on the team at about six-four, versus Trent, who was among the shortest at probably five-seven or five-eight. Danny still worked on guiding Trent to being less socially awkward in times like these. Trent was more clued in now than he was in our freshman year, but it was still a work in progress, which somehow Danny seemed to end up being in charge of.

“Come on,” Danny said. “Whatever’s in the envelope isn’t for us.”

Danny gently pushed Trent along, giving me exasperated look.

Once they were gone, there were only a couple other guys finishing up. I carefully opened the envelope and found a single sentence written on a card, which was a darker purple than the envelope.

"Sticky cheese helped me tell you I had a crush."

Clearly a reference to the night Alex and I discovered our crushes on each other. It was random in this context though. If Danny had the second envelope, where was the first? And how many were there total?

I pulled out my phone and typed off a message to Alex. “What’re you up to?"

I waited for the response while getting my sneakers on. Stuffed inside the left one was another purple envelope. It was "1."

"It was two years ago today."

Now number two made more sense. My phone double buzzed announcing Alex’s response. "I've no idea what you're talking about" followed by a winky face was on the screen. I imagined the cute smirk on his face that would've accompanied that if he were here.

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